Bristol Rovers boss Darrell Clarke delighted with derby win over Newport

Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke praised his depleted team after they survived a late Newport fightback to win 3-2 in the Severnside derby at Rodney Parade.

Two second-half strikes from Luke Thomas and a third from substitute Ellis Harrison put the visitors in complete control by the 72nd minute.

County fought back strongly in the closing stages thanks to goals from substitutes Kai Whitmore and Nathan Opoku, but Rovers held on throughout six minutes of stoppage time to condemn their hosts to a fifth successive defeat in League Two.

And, despite seeing his side lose their grip on the contest late on, Clarke was delighted with the three points.

“We won’t let that gloss over what was a fantastic win for us in the derby,” said the Rovers boss.
“We didn’t see the game out well enough, which is on me, but we still won so we live and learn.

“It was a very flat first half for a derby game. We had to raise our game because it was there to be won and I thought we did that in the second half with three away goals.

“We’re moving in the right direction. We were missing six or seven players, so that’s a good sign that we’re winning with players missing. Hopefully we’ll get one or two back next week.”

County manager David Hughes made six changes to his starting XI but couldn’t halt their slide down the table, despite impressive debuts for Leicester loanees Opoku and Sammy Braybrooke.

“It got away from us in a 20-minute period when we got too many things wrong and Bristol Rovers capitalised,” said the Exiles boss. “Credit to them for that. They asked lots of questions of us at key moments and we didn’t have the answer at those key moments.”

Thomas scrambled in the opener on 52 minutes after Fabrizio Cavegn was denied by the post and then goalkeeper Nik Tzanev on the rebound.

Tzanev’s poor clearance then gifted Thomas his second just before the hour mark, before Newport-born striker Harrison came off the bench to nod in the third and seemingly settle the match.

County subs Whitmore and Opoku struck on 78 minutes and 89 minutes, but it was too little too late for the hosts.

“At 3-0 down, you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain, but individual errors at key moments in time cost us,” said Hughes.

“The last 10 minutes I can’t criticise, but the game was done by then – we’d given ourselves a mountain to climb.

“Nobody likes to lose. The players don’t like to lose, we don’t like to lose. But, ultimately, we have and the buck stops with me.”